How To Use An RSS Feed To Increase Site Traffic

It wasn't all that long ago you could say the term "RSS" and get blank stares from just about anyone. Okay, so there are still hoards of people who wouldn't know an RSS if it bit them in the face, but with the proliferation of blogs and other sites offering an RSS feed the term is becoming more and more common. But what's the point? Will an RSS feed really do anything to improve your web site traffic, or is it just a fancy feature nobody really cares about? This chapter will bring you up to speed about RSS and help you decide if it might be a good addition to your traffic building strategy.

Although it sounds as intimidating as any techno babble out there, RSS is just an acronym for "Really Simple Syndication". As the name implies, it is a method for syndicating the content of a web site. An RSS file is really just another version of your web page, written in a code meant to be read by a program called a "parser". You could write an RSS file by hand, just like you could write an HTML page, but since the purpose of an RSS file is to provide quick and up-to-date information from your site, most RSS files are built by a website's content management system.

So what are we supposed to do with an RSS file? Read it in an RSS reader, of course. The real beauty publishing an RSS file for your web site is in this; it allows your visitors to read your site in an RSS reader. Don't worry; it is often possible to include your Adsense ads in your RSS feed, so you don't have to give up that revenue source. But the true benefit is that some site visitors are more likely to regularly read your posts if they can read them in an RSS reader. Most of these people will read the feeds from several sites every day, and isn't that the kind of site visitor you want to cultivate?

But while you're at it, there are a few other useful things you can do with your RSS feed. First, you can offer blog updates by email if a person subscribes to your feed through a service like FeedBlitz  or FeedBurner . Second, you can send broadcast emails to your mailing list by attaching an RSS feed to your autoresponder. Using this method you can actually publish a newsletter based solely on your blog posts, scheduling a broadcast each time you have a certain number of new entries.

But above all, the key benefit of RSS feeds is convenience. If you make it easy for your site visitors to keep reading your content, and the content is good, you're more likely to keep them around. We all know it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one, and an RSS feed provides an easy way to keep those visitors reading your site.

Give Your Opinion And Make More Free Traffic

I have a friend who once told me, "Everyone has a right to my opinion. So who am I to withhold it from them?" Of course he was joking (to some extent) but there is an element of truth for anyone in that statement. If you have had an experience with a product or service online, there might be a thousand other people who are thinking about buying that product or service and would like to know what you thought about it. But did you know you could post reviews on sites like Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Epinion  and help yourself while you're helping others? Posting reviews gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, and it allows you to build links back to your web site. This post will cover some ground work about sharing your opinion by writing reviews, and set you on your way to giving everyone what they deserve out of life, your opinion.

So, you may be wondering why you should bother writing reviews. Most likely you've already heard about writing articles to promote your web site or affiliate product. You probably already know how those articles will not only bring direct traffic to your site but will increase the "backlinks" and therefore improve your search engine placements. But product reviews at sites like Amazon don't get listed on Google by themselves, and the only people likely to see them are people who happen to be shopping for that particular product, right? Bingo! You've just hit the nail right on the head; people reading your review on Amazon are looking for that particular product. If your own web site is related to that product, then you might just have found yourself a new site visitor. Not only that, but you've found a site visitor who already knows you are familiar with products just like the ones they are shopping for.

Now that probably doesn't sound too exciting, does it? It may seem like a lot of work for gaining a few new visitors to your site. You're likely to be thinking there must be a more efficient way to build traffic. If that's what you're thinking, you're right. But if you look at the big picture, you may be terribly wrong. In the big picture, yes you're bringing a few visitors to your site but you're also creating backlinks from some of the largest sites with the heaviest traffic on the internet. What does that do for you, you ask? The answer is simple: it makes your site appear relevant. Here is one of the biggest sites on the internet and they're linking to you, and that's the sort of thing which really impresses search engines like Google. Your relevant back link from a major web site will do wonders for your search engine results page placement.

So now are you starting to believe there are more people who should be hearing your opinions?

Translate Your Website for Non English Audiance To Increase Traffic

Ethnocentricity isn't only the domain of English-speaking people, but we do have a pretty good hold on it. We sometimes forget that not everyone speaks English, and even if they do it might be nice to browse a web site in their own language. The internet is a global phenomenon, and so recognizing that fact and embracing it can go a long way to boost your presence on the web. But don't you know how to write your content in several languages? Can't you tell the difference between French and Chinese? This Post will share a few facts about web translation services and how they can benefit your web site.

So as you may have ascertained from my introduction, there are services on the internet which will translate your web site for you. Of course, all of these services are mechanical so you're not going to get the flow you might from hiring a native to that language. How well the translation comes out, even with the top of the line and most expensive commercial translation programs will depend to a large extent on both the source and the target languages. The closer the two languages are to each other in grammatical structure, the better. Also, some ideas might not survive the translation if they are too culturally entrenched; so you will do better with a text that is free from local colloquiums. One of the better translation engines is actually operated by Google, so it is easily available.

And speaking of Google, did you know translating your site into other languages can do wonders for your search engine placement? If you happen to translate you pages into let's say nine languages aside from English, you've just multiplied your content by a factor of nine. What's more, the search engines will see all those new pages as fresh new content; even if you started out with PLR articles it isn't likely all of those articles will be translated. Even if they are, they won't be translated exactly the same by two different engines, so you won't be dinged for duplicate content. Not to mention, if you happen to have Adsense ads on your site, they're going to be present on all of your new pages as well. Since your articles will have new keywords from other languages, your Adsense ads will be targeted to those non-English speaking audiences.
So as you can easily ascertain, the web is one place you don't want to be ethnocentric. It is a global marketplace, and you'll do well to make certain you run a web site with global appeal.

How To Get Free Traffic By Promote Niche At Forums And News Groups

It seems like a brilliant idea; join a few forums and newsgroups then just tell them all about your great new product or web site. Everyone will want to know because it is just so new and so hot, or they'll at least admire your self-promotion efforts, right? No, that couldn't be more wrong. Online forums and newsgroups are usually tight communities of like-minded people. You can network, build relationships, learn and grow your business through online communities. But if you spam these loyal and tight knit groups, you had better be ready to run for cover. This post will share a few tips about posting on forums and newsgroups without being accused of spam.

Today's online forums and newsgroups are communities centered on a common interest. Most often people come to these web sites to learn and share, or sometimes they just want to hang out. But because these sites feature such a high concentrate of potential customers within a defined niche, they are also the frequent target of spammers. Often of course, these spammers don't see themselves as such.

So we're all on the same page, let's take a minute and review just what spam is. Spam is simply an unsolicited advertisement. You didn't want it, you didn't ask for it and you will probably hit the delete button as soon as possible when you suspect it. In a forum or news group spam is a message that tries to sell something or promote a web site, when nobody asked for such a thing.

But what about all those targeted forums out there serving all those wonderful niche markets, isn't there some way to reach them? Sure you can reach them, but since these sites form virtual communities you're going to have to be accepted into the community first. That doesn't mean you can just join and post a few times then expect people to do cart wheels when you announce your product or site. You're going to have to be an active participant, establishing your reputation and giving back to the community.

Even then, most forums and news groups have rules about posting links. It is always a good idea to read the site rules before trying to promote anything. Some forums might have a special area where you can announce new sites and products, or even directly solicit your wares. Many sites will allow you to place discrete links in an area called you "signature".

Are these types of sites good places to promote your product or service? You bet they are; you might find some of your most loyal customers in an online forum or news group. But for that to happen you'll have to exercise patience and follow the rules.

Whatever you do, avoid being labeled a "spammer" as much as you would avoid the plague.

Build Free Traffic With A Contest Or Challenge

"And the winner is . . . !" People thrill at that statement, and just about everyone loves to win. How many times have you given your name, telephone number, and maybe even your email address away just to enter some drawing? Sure you figured someone would probably call and try to sell you something, but you probably took that chance anyway, didn't you? Contests and challenges are a great way to build the contact or email list for your business, as well as a great way to build excitement about your product or service. This post will discuss a few ideas about how a contest or challenge could be a great promotional tool for your business.

Obviously, you're going to need some way to contact the winner of your contest. Everyone knows that, so there isn't going to be much of a problem about asking for an email address or phone number. Those who don't want to give out their information simply won't enter your contest. The same applies for a challenge as well; if someone wants the prize for winning the challenge they'll have to be contacted. This makes holding a contest or a challenge a perfect way to build your list, but it doesn't stop there.

Everyone who enters a contest or challenge wants to see who the competition is. Even something as simple as a coloring contest can drive us to size up the competition. "My entry is better than that" or "That entry looks like trouble" are common to the competitive spirit in many people. So why is it a good idea to stir up all the rating and ranking? Some people will visit your site to see the competition and others will visit just to see what was entered. People are likely to tell their friends about the contest, either to check out their own entry or to get their friends to enter too.

But if you want all that traffic to translate into increased sales of your product or service, you're going to want it to be as targeted as possible. Promote your contest or challenge at a site related specifically to your topic. If the contest requires a little talent or expertise in your subject in order to win, then your traffic will be even more targeted. Even if you only have a few entries, there could be many others who want to see the entries.

Are exhibitors the only people who look at entries in the county fair? No, there are many others who just like looking. Holding your own contest will not only bring exhibitors but others as well. Either way, all that looking around translates into traffic for your site.

How To Create Email List And Maintain Your Site Traffic

You've probably heard it said, and it is very true, that it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one. But have you considered how that saying still holds water when you're talking about traffic to your site? Once you get someone to visit your site, the expensive part of the transaction is over. But what is next? Once they've visited, how do you keep your visitors coming back? Once they've made a purchase, how do you keep them as regular customers? This post will share a few tips on how to keep the traffic you already have by building an email list.

If you want your visitors to come back, take a minute to consider why they came to you in the first place. Was it for your great content? Was it for technical help or some other service? Was it to get something for free? Whatever reason brought your visitor the first time could be the key to getting that all-important repeat visit. But how will your visitors know they can return and get more of what they want? You're going to capture their email addresses so you can tell them so, and you're going to tell them over and over again.

Maintaining an email list of previous site visitors and customers is an integral part of building your online business. Through your email list you can keep these clients informed about new and exciting offers, information, and freebies you've placed on your web site since their last visit. Your email list will be the tool you use to keep your site in the forefront of your clients' minds.

There are two basic types of tools internet marketers use to manage an email list, an autoresponder or a broadcast script. An autoresponder is just like the name sounds, it automatically sends responses to someone who has subscribed. You can have these responses timed to just about any interval and you can set them up in advance to send out messages for days, weeks, months or years to come. A broadcast script is used to send out emails to your list as you write them; you could use this to send out announcements on a sporadic basis, or you could publish a regular newsletter. Some online autoresponse scripts allow you to perform a combination of these tasks, sending out regular pre-written emails through the autoresponder and adding occasional broadcasts whenever you want.

Hotscripts.com  is a good source if you are looking for PHP or ASP based e-mail list scripts.

Most internet marketing gurus recommend using a hosted service like a hosted solution with it's own mail servers, then you'll consider using Aweber or GetResponse because these services have an excellent track record of actually delivering emails. With the proliferation of spam filters, it can be difficult to get emails through, even to those who actually want to hear from you.

A free option would be to send out broadcast emails by starting a private Yahoo Group or Google Group .

Stop The Presses With These Professional Press Release Tips

Stop the presses! Or at least put them on hold because you've got something to say and you want the world to hear it. But how do you present your big story to the media without being ignored? A press release is a written or recorded statement to the media for the purpose of proclaiming some newsworthy story, but how should it be formatted and what should it contain? This post will walk you though some pressrelease terminology so you can write press releases that will, as you may have guessed, stop the presses.

The first important thing to realize about a press release is that you're not submitting a finished story. Finished stories are what journalists do, and the job of a press release is to catch a journalist's attention. A press release is an entirely different thing from a news article. While a news article is a grouping of facts, developed by journalists and published in the news media, a press release (also called a news release) is sent to journalists to entice them into developing an article on the subject you've submitted.

So what does that tell you about your press release? It simply has to sell the idea of a story to a journalist. You have to show your story is newsworthy, something that will interest the journalist's audience. As you may have guessed, your press release can't be a sales letter for your newest product or service disguised as a "story". Such a thing might be considered the journalistic equivalent of spam and the media can recognize these veiled sales letters a mile away. You need to show the human interest behind your story, the benefit to the reader, and of course the benefit to the journalist for developing the story into an article.

So now that you've got all that in hand, how do you format your press release? Here is a list of the major elements of a professional press release:

1. Headline: Grabs the attention of journalists and briefly summarizes the news.

2. Dateline: Contains the release date and usually the originating city of the news.

3. Introduction: First paragraph in a press release giving basic answers to the questions: who, 
    what, when, where and why.

4. Body: Further explanation, statistics, background, or other relevant details.

5. Boilerplate: A short "about" section with background on the issuing company, organization, or 
    individual.

6. Media Contact Information: Name, phone number, email address, mailing address, or other 
    contact information for the PR or other media relations contact person.


If you include these elements and make your story sound truly newsworthy, your press release will establish you as a professional and help you gain the respect of the media and get more visitors. Without these important elements, your press release is likely become nothing more than wastepaper basket fodder.

Create a Squidoo Lens And Get More Free Traffic

A short time ago word started spreading about a brand new site called Squidoo . It sounded like an interesting concept, a little like a blog and a little like an "About Me" page, they asked you to sign up and create something called a "lens". It was certainly a unique idea, and everyone wondered if it would catch on. Now more than a year later the true benefits of making a lens at Squidoo are clear. It is a great place to create a new site about your hobby, passion or business, but even more it is a great place to promote any existing web site you may have. Not only can you tell Squidoo visitors about your site, but a lens gives the search engines another reason to place your site higher on the results pages; a Squidoo lens is a perfect place to build "backlinks" to your blog or web site.

When making a lens at Squidoo you have the option to display RSS feeds from other sites. Place an RSS link on your lens and suddenly the site publishing the feed has a new set of backlinks from a popular and relevant site. That is just what the search engine spiders love to see. What other RSS feeds could you place on Squidoo? Do you submit articles to an article directory, and if so does that directory offer an RSS feed of your articles? If you operate an eBay Store you could post its RSS feed.

Of course an RSS feed isn't the only way to promote your site on Squidoo. You could create static links to specific pages on your site. Write a summary of one of your articles and link to that article. Write some information about an ebook you've written or promote and link from Squidoo. You could also simply place a list of links back to different pages of your website. The possibilities are only limited by the ideas you can come up with, but one important tip: don't just link to your site's main page, make keyword specific links to particular pages within your site.

The general consensus among internet marketers right now is that Squidoo is slipping a little in the search engine results pages. Squidoo recently made some changes in their templates, and so over the last few weeks it seems to have affected their search engine optimization. Marketers are reporting a definite slip in their SERP (search engine results page) placement. Even so, creating a lens at Squidoo is a profitable way to promote just about site you own.

Free Advertising and Get More Traffic With Craiglist and USFreeAds

Everyone knows how important it is to advertise. It's what sets the chicken apart from the centipede; the centipede lays a thousand eggs in silence while the chicken lays just one but squawks about it. Which one is better known as an egg layer? The chicken is, of course. But unless you have the budget of a small nation, advertising expenses can be an ominous prospect. So where are some places you can advertise for free? What are the advantages, disadvantages and legal issues? This post will cover a few places you might consider for free advertising.

Two of the most common places people go for free advertising are CraigsList and USFreeAds .

CraigsList, as you may already know, is a recent phenomenon of the internet world which lets you advertise the sale of just about anything and all for free. USFreeAds has actually been around longer than CraigsList, since 1999 in fact, but isn't quite as well known. Both sites allow you to post ads for free, but these sites do have a few limitations and regulations you will have to follow.

CraigsList has the advantage of being totally free, but since it is free it carries one major hurdle to the internet marketer. That hurdle, as you may have anticipated, is that they do no allow affiliate ads. In other words, you can't run an ad with the purpose of linking to an affiliate product. Up until very recently, marketers have found ways to work around this. But CraigsList has become more aggressive about their regulation. Either way, if you're in this business for the long haul it is wise to follow the rules.

USFreeAds does offer a free account, but it carries limited functionality. However they offer two types of paid accounts; the Gold Membership for only $10 a year and the Premium Membership for $9.99 a month. Of course the two levels of paid membership increase the features as you pay more, so you will have to decide which membership will serve your needs. You might be wise to start out with the Gold Membership and do some testing before you dole out for the monthly Premium membership. USFreeAds is generally open to posting affiliate links, but maintains a family-friendly policy and so they will not allow ads leading to Adult content.

General experience with these types of sites is that the general clientele is looking for really good deals, and generally consider the good deals to be something for free. eBay has somewhat of a reputation for this as well, the reputation that its clients want something for nothing, and my experience has been that it holds true even more for free ad sites. Of course this type of client might not be the right fit for everybody, and there will always be exceptions. So in the long run it remains for you to test out these options for yourself and decide if they work for you or not.

But what the heck, as long as it's free you can't be out too much more than a little of your time.

Use Viral Videos To Build More Web Site Traffic

Imagine a world without television. Can you do it? Chances are if you were born in the last 40 years or so, you can't. Everywhere we turn we are bombarded with video images, first on television, but now on everything from desktop computers to cell phones. In fact, videos are so popular online they sometimes are passed around and create a viral marketing effect; that is what makes them interesting to marketers. This post will share a few ways you can jump on the band wagon and use these viral video techniques to bring traffic to your site.

A popular way to get into the world of viral video marketing is to build a blog and frequently add videos. Use amusing video clips, interactive Flash games and moving images since these are most likely to catch your visitor's attention and be shared with others. The Dancing Bush 2001 interactive game brought massive attention to what eventually became the largest private entertainment site on the internet. Sunsilk hair products gained attention when a YouTube  video "Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out" went viral. Companies the likes of Halo, Blair Witch Project, Xbox 360, The Ring Movie, Sony, Playstation and FX Networks have all benefited from viral videos.

One effective way to make sure your video draws attention to your web site or brand is to include the site name (and URL) within a video as part of the entertainment. The more integrated the inclusion, the less your video is going to look like an advertising ploy. Of course, you might want to refer to your site or brand more than once, but don't go overboard. On the other hand some successful viral campaigns, like Burger King's "Subservient Chicken" didn't mention a web site or brand anywhere; but people knew where the video came from and it attracted massive attention on the web.

Another way to make sure your viral video drives traffic to your site is to include a link close to the video on YouTube and Google Video. This will allow viewers to easily identify the source of the video and find their way to your site.

So once you have all this traffic on your site, what are you going to do with them? Well first off, be sure to encourage visitors to pass your video to friends. Then if at all possible add some means for the video to be emailed or added to a social bookmarking site. If you have built your site on a blog like WordPress, there are plugins to add that functionality to your site for you.
So get out there and start spreading a virus, a video virus that is.

Get More Visitors By Answering Questions

I've heard it said that one of the deepest desires of people today is the desire to feel important. One easy way to make someone feel important is to give them attention and show you care about the things they care about. Be there when that person needs you and help that person when they need help, and you'll be satisfying the deep desire to feel important. Now if you can make your customers feel important, do you think they'll be interested in buying from you again? When you've bought from someone who truly seemed to care about you and think you were important, didn't you feel a certain loyalty? This post will show one way to build a base of loyal customers by answering questions at places like Yahoo Answers and Answerbag.com especially if you own a service oriented business.

Sites like Answerbag.com and Yahoo Answers have become very popular. People can ask questions on just about any topic and end up with at least one answer. When users on Answerbag were recently asked why they answered questions, the responses included:

"I have made new friends here at Answerbag, and I like to share my knowledge with them."

"I love sharing views and opinions."

"In helping others, it seems to help me. Feel better about myself."

"I want people to answer my questions, so I will answer theirs."

So what does that have to do with you, an internet marketer? How could that possibly help your online business? Do you notice the words "friends", "sharing", and "helping" in the comments I quoted? These are all relationship words, and creating relationships is the key to building a loyal customer base.

Once you've started to build a releationship with someone on one of these Answer sites, you've started to open the door to doing business with them. If you gave a truly helpful answer, and as I said earlier made someone feel important by helping them, you've created a powerful emotional attachment with that person. Once you have this attachment you can carefully introduce the fact that you have a business related to the topic you helped that person with, and that you may be able to help them even more through your business.

Although most of these Answer sites are limited in how they can allow you to link back to your web site, there is usually some place to put a little description of yourself in a profile. Be sure to mention the fact that you own a web site on a particular topic, and you may create a bit of traffic from your profile. But remember we are talking about a relationship-based type of marketing, and as with any relationship you have to give it time to grow before you can expect someone to jump on board and buy your product. However with a little patience, you can be well on your way to building a loyal base of visitors by making them feel important.

How To Submit Site To Web Directories and Build Targeted Traffic

Everywhere you turn these days you're hearing about Search Engine Optimization. It's "SEO this and SEO that" until you might start to think there is no other way to get traffic. But did you know there is a whole different world of places people go when they're looking for web sites just like yours? This is the world of web directories, the smaller and more personable cousin of search engines, where your web site is actually viewed and indexed by human eyes and not by search engine spiders. But how do you let the web directories know you exist, and which directories are worth dealing with? This Post will give a brief overview of the best directories and how you can make certain they know all about your web site.

Although many web directories supplement their listings with search engine feeds from places like Google, the primary method of getting yourself listed with a search directory is by telling them about your site, also called "submitting" your site. You can submit your site to the web directories by hand or there are software solutions to do the work for you.

If you are looking for paid and free directories, you'll check these lists to find suitable web directories for you:

http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php   

http://www.bestweb-directories.com/ 
                             
http://info.vilesilencer.com/

http://top.seo-links.org/

http://www.web-directories.ws/

http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm

http://ask-dir.com/Directories/

http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/free-web-directories.html

http://www.directorycritic.com/

Many of the smaller web directories focus on a particular niche. Just because they're small, don't rule these directories out. If you want targeted traffic who was already looking for a web site or a product just like yours, these smaller web directories are the place to find them. But on the other end of the spectrum there is an array of large web directories covering almost every topic under the sun. Probably the most well known of these large directories is actually DMOZ  which calls itself the "largest on the web" and is constructed and maintained by a "vast, global community of volunteer editors." Yahoo! Directory  is another well known web directory. Although Yahoo! is best known as a search engine, they are also a web directory where you can submit your site for listing.

Why StumbleUpon Is a Social Bookmarking On Steroids

Social bookmarking is the big buzz term among internet marketers these days, but up until now it has been fairly static. You could make recommendations to friends through places like Del.icio.us , Digg , Technorati , and you could search for sites in a particular topic area. But StumbleUpon  gives you all that and a little bit more; this site actually learns what you like and makes recommendations. What are the implications for web marketers? What do you have to do if you want StumbleUpon to recommend your site? Can this service generate free traffic to your site? All these questions and more will be covered in this Post.

Just like any social bookmarking site, visitors can connect with friends and share sites. They can meet people with similar interests and check out what other people are discovering. With StumbleUpon you can "channel surf" the best-reviewed sites on the internet. It is a "collaborative surfing tool for finding and sharing great sites." Just add a toolbar to your browser and you can give a review for any site you happen to land upon.

So this is where the internet marketer comes in. As you probably already guessed, it can be beneficial to the health and future of your web site if several people give it good reviews. If one of your visitors already has the StumbleUpon toolbar installed, and finds your site, they could get the ball rolling for you. But if you're like most marketers, you're not going to want to leave all that to chance. Just like what people have already been doing with sites like Digg and Technorati, there is no reason you can't review one of your own web sites. As a matter of fact, why not review them all?

Once your site has been reviewed, StumbleUpon will start to do a little of the work for you. Since the site actually makes recommendations to its members, telling them about sites they might be interested in, StumbleUpon just might recommend your site to a few people. The more popular your site becomes, which it looks like is determined by the number of positive reviews you receive, the more your site will be recommended to others. Before you know it, and with very little extra effort on your part, you could have gained a steady stream of free traffic.

What could be better than free traffic, coming from the recommendations of people you have never contacted in places you've never heard about? All this just because a few people voted for your site and said it was good. Of course, this isn't likely to happen if you don't run a strong web site with excellent content, but that's what you're already doing, isn't it?

How To Use Social Bookmarking To Get More Traffic

Early in the days of Internet browsing, someone got the bright idea of keeping placeholders, or bookmarks for web sites we've visited and enjoyed. It was a great way to keep track of things. Before long, someone else got the brilliant idea there should be a way to share these bookmarks with our friends. Suddenly, a world of social bookmarking came into existence. But how can you, the internet marketer, tap into this social network? Is there a way social bookmarking can build traffic for your site? This post will discuss a few methods of putting social bookmarking to work for you, bringing new visitors to your site.

Since any web page can be bookmarked, any web page can be shared with friends. This is the premise behind using social bookmarking as a marketing technique. As you may have guessed, the idea is to get people who visit your site to bookmark and share it. Of course your visitors could simply email a link to their friends, but they might not think of that option on their own. It is not only your job then to remind them of this option, but to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

Fortunately, since the entire blog community has a long and rich history of sharing links, with millions of "check this out" type posts, there have been several tools to help you make it easy for your visitors to share a link to your site. For example, if you happen to build your site on the WordPress blog platform you can find half a dozen excellent programs which provide a "share this" link with every post you make.

Not only will most of these plug-ins allow your visitors to email a link to a friend, they can add your site to the major social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us , Digg , Technorati , and StumbleUpon .

At these social bookmarking sites your visitors can also post reviews and say just what they like about your site, thereby attracting others who find the information.

Now, who is to say that you can't post your own articles, blog posts and web pages to these social bookmarking sites yourself? If you post your entries, you expose it to thousands of visitors at the social bookmarking sites who might be interested in what you have to offer.

If you have an exceptionally interesting post, and place it on a social bookmarking site, you open the door to a viral marketing effect and free exposure you probably could have never otherwise afforded.

Giving Out Free Reports and Build More Traffic

Everybody loves to get something for nothing, don't they? So offering a report or ebook for free on your web site is simply giving people what they want. Oh sure the technique is as old as the hills, give away an ebook or report in exchange for joining your mailing list. But do you know how to get your free report into the hands of people you might never otherwise be able to contact? Do you know how to make people really want to pass your report to their friends? This post will share a few tips and techniques for giving away free reports and ebooks to build an email list of loyal customers.

So you might already understand the basic concept but I'll cover it here briefly. You offer a free ebook on your web site, and all people have to do is add their email address to your list. You post a sign up form to your autoresponder (also called an opt-in form) and setup automatic delivery of the ebook or a download link when someone submits the information. But does it have to stop there? Should you be satisfied with just that one email address? Absolutely not, I say.

Another part of the old technique is you'll include affiliate links within your report. Sure, we all know that; you sign up to be an affiliate for products related to your report, put the link in your report and get paid a commission when people buy those products. This will get you a little further than just a plain old report, but wouldn't you like to kick that process into a higher gear?

What if you give away that same free report with those same affiliate links in it, but make those links customizable? You can use a special software known as "PDF Brander" which will allow someone to change the links you specify, exchanging their affiliate link with yours.

Now you've given that person a real reason to pass your report along, they can make money by doing so. Since that person might not have already been an affiliate of the products you refer to in the report, you could still collect a second-tier commission because they become an affiliate "under" you. Not only that but if you leave a couple of links back to your own web site within the report, you've just gotten your link infront of another potential site visitor.

Build A Blog To Increase Your Site Traffic

Not too long ago, the question seemed to be "To blog or not to blog." But now the blog has truly established itself as a formidable web presence and the question has become, "To blog or not to be." But it can be a lonely feeling when you write a blog and nobody is there to read it. How do you create a blog, but more importantly how do you create one people will actually read? This post will introduce you to the common everyday blog and show you how it can carry you to uncommon and exceptional heights.

Just in case you haven't heard, the term "blog" is short for "web log" (leave it to a bunch of computer geeks to squeeze a couple of words together and make a new dictionary entry). Originally blogs were similar to an online diary, or a log of places you visited on the web. But today the blog platform has emerged as a content manager, an easy way to create a web site and manage your articles and other posts. A blog is a great way to easily post the latest information, and that is why the search engines love them.

Whenever someone says "search engine" and "loves them" in the same sentence you should pay attention. Yes search engines love blogs because they are a constant source of new and changing information, and that's what search engines seek. I not only recommend that you start your own blog, but I recommend that you start two.
Here's why:

Use one blog as a content management system. You can build an entire website on a blog platform like WordPress, and if you have a web host with cPanel access and Fantastico, you can create a WordPress blog in a few clicks. If building your own blog from scratch seems a little overwhelming at first, you can get a free WordPress blog at wordpress.com and you won't even have to host it.

Create second blog and use it as a true web log. Journal all about your online activities and refer to the articles and posts in your first blog. Each time you link to your first blog, you've just helped your search engine results. Build this second blog at www.wordpress.com or give www.blogger.com a try. Blogger is operated by Google and it is believed that "search engine" really "loves them" (remember what I said about those phrases together?

So as I already said, link between these two blogs often. You can create a little network of related blogs, all linking to each other, and each helping the other with search engine placement. Here's an important tip: use keywords in all your blog names, URL's, post titles, article titles and in all of your links; when the search engine spiders follow your links you don't want there to be any doubt what those links are about!

If you have an existing web site you want to promote, link to it whenever possible in all of your blogs. Talk about new features and offers at your site; the more you can log on your blog, the better.

How To Build Traffic Through Giveaways

If you wouldn't mind indulging me a moment, I'd like you to think about a virus. What does a virus have to do with anything of interest to you? Well, a virus is something that enters the body as a microscopic germ and spreads until it virtually takes things over. Doesn't that sound like the perfect internet marketing campaign? How would an internet germ get through? You can start a viral marketing germ with a free tool, service, template or report, and if conditions are correct it can spread like wildfire. This post will share a few ideas about how offering a free product can perform wonders for your online business.

It is a well known fact that everyone loves free stuff. If the free stuff is something useful like a tool, template, service or valuable information, then so much the better. But many of us have a large section of our hard drives full of things we've downloaded for free and will never use. The original idea seemed good and we probably exchanged our email addresses for these bits of hard drive clutter, but something about them just didn't pan out. Maybe they weren't what we expected.

So if you're going to give away something free, and your motive is for it to create a viral marketing effect and be passed around the internet, you're more likely to be successful if you give away something that's really useful. What can people within your market really use? If your free giveaway is just some gimmick or even worse just an attempt to sell another product, it isn't going to get passed around.

But even if you do offer a true quality giveaway, what will make it go viral? You could have the greatest free tool which anyone can use, but what is going to make anyone take the time to pass it on to a friend? Can you simply ask them to? Maybe, but what if you gave a real reason to pass it?

Are there any affiliate links in the product? It may seem like this only applies to an ebook or report, but sometimes a tool will have a link to the author's web site. A free template will usually have a link somewhere around the copyright notice. What if these links were to an affiliate program, and what if the person who passed your free offer on could replace the link with their own affiliate link? Wouldn't it motivate someone to pass on a nice tool or template if they thought they might make a little money from it?

If you want someone to perform an action for you, you've got to show that person what is in it for him/her.